One of many 18th century’s solely classical composers of color – Chevalier overview

This good-looking interval drama tells the fascinating and little-known true story of Joseph Bologne, one of many 18th century’s solely classical composers of color.

Kelvin Harrison Jr is so good within the lead function, you would like he’d been handed a greater script.

This is an uncommon man dwelling in an enchanting time however all the sides are smoothed off to service a formulaic underdog drama and historic romance.

His story begins with a toe-curling sequence in an opera home the place Joseph interrupts a efficiency to problem Mozart to a violin battle which positively didn’t occur.

After the pair commerce fiddle solos, the maestro leaves the stage screaming, “Who the f*** was that?”

Flashbacks present a solution. The son of a French plantation proprietor and an enslaved Senegalese girl, Bologne was despatched to a prime Parisian faculty the place he turned a fencing champion and a virtuoso musician.

That weird violin noodling attracts the eye of Marie Antoinette (Lucy Boynton) who bestows on him the title Chevalier. She additionally invitations him to compete for the coveted place of head of the Paris Opera.

But romancing an aristocrat’s spouse (Samara Weaving) and snubbing a diva (Minnie Driver) results in his downfall.

Bologne goes on to play a key function within the French Revolution however his political awakening is means too thinly sketched right here.

Chevalier, Cert 12A In cinemas now